Commercial viability of horror games

How feasible is it to get decent sales for a horror game? They often go viral on Youtube but sales are relatively low except for the most popular (such as FNaF, but even FNaF's sales are surprisingly low given the huge community on Youtube). Most people seem to avoid actually playing horror games but they enjoy watching other people freak out while playing them.

 

They are arguably as viable as any genre (so as bad as usual). To read the tea leaves a bit, it's a genre that doesn't take many games a year to become over-saturated. It's a pretty niche genre, and as much as it's become a past-time to bash on AAA for abandoning it, the reality is it stopped being a reliable market. Horror has always relied on immersion when the costs to give people that immersion has done nothing but increase.

 

Let's just say... that nobody who gets rich off of horror knew in advance that it was going to happen.

 

It might work if you manage to make a horror game that is so great and hardcore that it raises the bar of the genre. I'm 100% sure though, that at this point this is far outside of the scope for solo-indies. E.g. Amnesia raised the bar imho and had me giving it lots of recommendations to others, Soma - by the same team - didn't raise the bar and thus I wouldn't recommend it. Haven't even finished it yet, because it's almost kind of boring for me.
20 years or so from now, we probably have horror games that will tap into your internet-of-things hub and mess with the lights in your home or play sounds on speakers in other rooms when you think the game isn't running.

 

But the paradox is that gameplay videos of horror games are explosively popular on Youtube, and so the guys making the videos must be making significant money off them. Markiplier's FNaF videos alone had almost 700 million views, which would theoretically result in anywhere from $700,000 - $2,000,000 (based on the standard estimates of $1 - $3 per thousand views). If you add all the other FNaF videos (countless billions of views), we're talking a staggering sum of money. The author (Scott Cawthon) only released a handful of FNaF videos of his own but they did well in terms of views since people often link to the dev's own videos; so if he had released dozens or hundreds of videos he could have probably made more money off the videos than he did from game sales.

Obviously, few horror games do as well as FNaF, but the principle is the same (on a smaller scale) for the other ones. Even some of the really simple horror games such as "Vanish" had a tremendous number of views.

 

This...

Five Nights at Freddy's was not made with the knowledge it would make money or become as popular as it did. It just happened that way.

Triple A horror games tend to be a hit or miss with a lot of missing with the consumer than hits. No one can explain it why it is this way.

The same with indie devs which seem to have a slightly better success rate than triple A when it comes to horror, yet they are not as well known either. Also those indie horror themed games that do well still do not do WELL, they do OK in the end with only some making enough money to make the developer(s) very happy and put their name on top, while other's at the very least may be encouraged to make another game which can be a good thing.

Personally I have a total of 2 horror themed games in design, because I really like horror games.

 

Horror relies on making people feel helpless in a world with rules they can't understand, let alone control. Making an effective horror fantasy is incredibly difficult, especially compared to making a standard power fantasy. That's why so many AAA attempts at horror are hit or miss.

Then you have to consider the target audience. In general the power fantasy is more popular then the horror fantasy. So horror will always have a limited market.

Neither of these two points mean the profitability is limited. You also have a smaller group of devs competing for the market. But it does mean that you have to be good at what you do. Which is the same for pretty much any segment of the gaming market.

There isn't much room for mediocrity in games anywhere.

 

Horror is the only genre where the intent is for the consumer to not enjoy the experience.

It's hard to imagine what a target audience might look like.

 

That's incorrect. People definitely enjoy playing horror games, watching horror movies, and reading horror books. The target audience is people who enjoy horror stuff. It's really not anything weird or hard to understand at all.

--Eric

 

hor·ror
/ˈhôrər/
noun

1. an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust:

(edit)
(I'll say everything here so I won't have to keep going in multiple posts)

Just because someone does something, however routinely, that doesn't automatically mean that they enjoy it.

An easy point to miss.

Horror is about indulging fear, irrational thinking and paranoia--things we normally suppress. For some of us, channeling these things into a concentrated form of controlled entertainment helps us to cope and manage with these feelings.

People who do BDSM don't feel pleasure where others feel pain; they feel pain.

Likewise, people who consume horror don't feel joy from horrifying events and circumstances; people have to find a way to cope with these feelings, to respond to these stories and images. It's almost funny to hear someone say what you're saying, because you're basically saying that gruesome images of people dying in real life is traumatizing... but the same images, within the frame of a movie screen, are just enjoyable fun.

Everybody has their own way of coping with horror. You're the rational-minded denial type, "everything has a logical explanation" sort of guy. Some other people have to make all horror funny in order to cope.

But no, the goal of any horror writer is to shock, frighten and disturb the audience and leave them with as much negative energy and baggage as they can. Preferably, scar some people for life.

So yeah, enjoyable.

 

@Master-Frog : You're looking into the definition way to much, that's a generalized world-view of what the definition is.

I (Enjoy) it because I am in fact (sacred) of it. Knowing its not real I don't have to worry about my life (real life) being killed, so I try to (face) the (fear) and I (enjoy) it because it is (scary).

Such as Alien Isolation, I can't beat a single Survival Mode game because I am too scared to even move from under the table, I enjoy it and it gives me a rush flooding with emotions that make it seem so real, so I have to make the right decisions or else my character dies.

I am obsessed with Alien Isolation for that simple fact, that even though I know it's not real, it still instills a truly terrifying experience that I have to just keep going back too and facing it.

 

I'm sure we can find others if we look hard enough. Many games don't fit a narow definition of enjoy.

Although I'm with everyone else that the definition of enjoy is pretty hazy. There are people who do enjoy being scared or feeling helpless.

But there are people who enjoy feeling pain, or inflicting pain on others. (Although one could argue that pain isn't really at the centre of BDSM. In many cases it's about trust, submission and escaping responsibility.)

You shouldn't assume that your emotional state and range is reflective of everyone's emotional state and range. Just because something is unenjoyable to you, doesn't mean it will be the same to everyone.

One recipie for happiness in life is to realise what you want, and go after it. Instead of going for what you are 'supposed' to enjoy.

 

Yes. It's not your place to tell other people what they feel. If people enjoy horror games, then they enjoy horror games, and the audience for horror games is people who enjoy horror games. It really is that simple and it's pointless trying to be all weird about it.

Wow, it's almost like people might be able to make a distinction between real life and a movie!

Objectively wrong.

--Eric

 

Fear can be very enjoyable, depending on how you experience it. Some of the scariest stuff I've done is also the most enjoyable. I think you have totally the wrong perspective if you're trying to make a general statement.

In terms of horror games, I think the main problem is that not only do people experience fear in a lot of different ways, but they aren't always scared of the same sorts of things. It depends a lot on their specific life experiences. So you can't always aim for a general audience - although probably abstracting the antagonist to the point where they could be identified with whatever the audience wanted to identify them with would help.

I'm not sure that this is correct, at least in an absolute sense - it seems to me that any environment in which a fairly normal person can enjoy fear, whether it is a video game or some other situation, must have rules that cannot be broken, limits which are not crossed. Everyone has limits, and the pleasure experience usually occurs somewhere in the vicinity of them, but not over them. Finding this balance for a reasonable percentage of the target audience is the challenge and the key.

 

That is the crux with todays Youtube culture if you ask me... many people enjoy watching other people play games more than playing the games themselves. For various reasons, because they enjoy watching the "pros" playing, because someone is just fun to watch no matter what he/she plays or how well he/she plays (PewDiePies Scream escapades, or Jim Sterlings very sarcastic takes on Steams underbelly of S***e titles com to mind).

You will find many of the top youtubers can make good money off videos of games that don't do nearly as well... because they ARE youtubes top of the crop... while the games they play might not be Steams top of the crop, thus of course not doing to well. Especially S***e games can make for very entertaining videos if the Youtuber is good at entertaining his viewers while playing this "game".


Having said that, lets face the fact that many of todays Indie horror games are S***e. Well, scratch that, both the Indie and the Horror part. Most games released today are S***e, no matter if AAA or Indie, no matter if shooter or horror game. They are S***e for various reasons (in case of AAA games most of the time not for the lack of skill or expierience, but for too small budgets and "business reasons", in case of Indie titles often more because of the lack of skill on the side of the dev AND "business reasons")... but given the huge amount of games coming out, the average has dropped to a pretty low standart.
Now, if you release a GOOD horror game today, and manage to keep costs down by making smart decisions, I am guessing you will see a good return on investment. If you manage to surprise your audience with new ideas while keeping within accepted genre conventions otherwise, AND you manage to build community and market your game, your game should do reasonably well.

If you release a half baked S***e to Steam, a blatant clone, a game cobbled together from badly fitting stock assets, a bugfest that must have been coded by a dev with very little coding skills, a game so so cheaply done its aspiration to get people to spend 5 bucks on a one weekend hackjob is only thinly veiled in a bunch of stock assets, you maybe shouldn't expect a lot of sales. Tricking people with a professional looking thumbnail to click on your store page will not do the job, deleting bad comments or talking back neither. If the video and screenshots already show that your game most probably is a cheap hack, you should be happy about ANY kind of sales.


Now, that might not affect your horror game you spent many months (hopefully) to craft, went through the pain of making sure all the assets fit together by DIY or at least opening up and fixing the stock assets before you threw them into Unity.
That you hopefully went through a design phase in which you came up with original ideas for your game, designed challenging and interesting levels for it, and in the end went in and balanced everything to make sure your players have a good time playing the game.

But too many "Indie devs" are seemingly not able or ready to do that, and just throw poorly designed and implemented games on Steam and similar stores. VR is not making that any better, now many get the Idea that VR makes S***e interesting again... see "Here they lie". Which seemingly is not only giving some players headaches and worse, but seem to be not a very well crafted game besides that.

End result is an overcrowded store where most games are just not that good and get the sales they deserve (which is not many). And the few good ones suffer because of the problems with discovery created by the tons of games flooding the store.

 

Then why don't you get the best out of those two worlds? Find a way to monetize the people who play your horror game, perhaps offer/get rev share, or offer some prize for best reactions, etc..

I agree with the mentioned above that a Horror game is a niche, and that in most of the cases, horror games made by indies are more better (Scarier) than AAA hits. I mean, you can expect great graphics/engines/story in pro games, but you can't expect anything from a horror fan developer

Cheers,
Zoki.

 

I think any genre is over saturated and too many cliches are being used. I mean... if your horror game involves walking around with a flashlight and shooting things then you're doomed.

But the horror genre doesn't have to be like this. Take 'Fran Bow' a game I consider to be one of the greatest horror point and click games I've ever played. The scope wasn't too big yet the way you get through the game is truly captivating. A lot of thought has gone into to make it original and captivating.

Point being, if you have a unique way to guide your player through the story 'ANY' genre can be a success.

 

Horror is niche. Unlike films which have a set duration games are much more involved and can last for many hours. It's harder to have an expectation going in to a game. This means that the marketing and gameplay itself has to be exemplary in order to overcome peoples natural repulsion to the prospect of immersing themselves in a horror world for extended periods of time, this is critical if you want to achieve greater sales numbers and make inroads to the more middle of the road players.

Think about it this way, most horror games are either puzzle games or shoot em ups. So why go horror? The horror aspect could be your gimmick to try and differentiate yourself from the crowd. It could also be an essential mechanism of the game. Or you could just be really good at writing horror stories. If those aren't the reasons though and maybe you just really like horror then all you're doing is excluding a larger portion of your potential audience because most people that like horror also like other things as well and would probably like your game just as much with a different skin. Horror is not a belief system like politics or religion, it's also not really a subculture at this point, so you don't get an automatic audience just by declaring allegiance. You have to earn gamers trust that the experience is a worthwhile one to have. With horror it's much harder to make that all important appealing first impression.

 

I think many people actually prefer a horror element (rather than just an FPS) because of the extra thrill that comes from being unable to simply neutralize enemies with a few gunshots. In a normal FPS, any sense of danger evaporates once you learn how to gun down enemies efficiently, and the sense of vicarious danger is the whole point of many games. That's also why there's a huge subculture of horror fans on Youtube, not only people who watch horror games but also ghost videos etc. I think the reason many horror games fail to get good sales is because most of them offer very little to do; most are also extremely generic (same haunted asylum / hospital / dungeon etc); and most of them aim to shock or frighten the viewer to a degree that most people don't really want to experience directly. I think the successful games offer a degree of horror which is scary enough to thrill but not so morbid that it turns people off, and an environment which is compelling or at least subtle enough to suspend disbelief - e.g. Slenderman was frightening to many people but in a subtle manner (just an odd-looking guy who follows behind you) without any of the usual gore or over-the-top jumpscares; FNaF had a nice ambiance and a lot of "lore" as well as tongue-in-cheek humor; "Sir, You Are Being Hunted" was mildly spooky combined with humor and a British ambiance; etc.

 

Imagine a game like stranger things.

Spoiler

where threes an alien abducting people from the town, and it will take them into the other dimension and it will turn humans into monsters, so you got to find the items (shotgun, compass, bear traps), and find and kill the monster(s), it could be a town based procedural game.

 

It's basically like making candy that tastes bad on purpose. You can do it; as a gimmick, joke or novelty--but don't ever expect to compete with candy that tastes good.

 

Yeah I agree, I think you have to be real careful giving your protagonist a gun in a horror game (but it can be done well if used sparingly). The whole point of the horror genre is feelings of helplessness. No gun, no protection. All you can do is run, I also think this is why Player Teaser and Amnesia works so well.

The horror games I didn't like so much was outlast, as it crams in so many cliches. Abandoned hospitals, jump scares galore.

The other trick to horror is playing on the uncanny. For example, a door just opening by itself, or slamming. A ball rolling toward you from the end of a dark corridor and nobody is there. Sounds play a big, big part as well. Story as well. You guide the player into a sense of helplessness.

The hardest part is figuring out a compelling gameplay or objective. I literally had hours of fun playing Fran Bow, and all that was, was a point and click game. But there are so many options. Another great horror type indie game was limbo, they combined a dark atmosphere with a puzzle platformer. And lastly 'Year Walk' what a great little unexpected story/narrative that was!

If you can avoid the cliches, with a great atmosphere and a decent story/gameplay you could scope small and make a decent enough game.

In my horror game thus far I've carefully considered the atmosphere (see image), and the uncanny. There's going to be clues to reveal a story, the sounds are going to get more and more creepy. Bits of the wall are going to open to reveal hidden openings. Paintings hide hidden clues.

 

No, it's like a thick dark coffee with no sugar, compared to a Coca cola. The bitterness combined with the rush is what makes it so compelling

I'm not a fan of horror much at all, mainly because I find them pointless, but in terms of the fear factor at least, I think you're simplifying things to imagine that horror is simply the reverse of the power fantasy. In fact they have a lot more in common that not.

 

Yyou can use steamspy to get a general idea. It does look a pretty good genre - if you sort by owners unless your game is in the bottom 100 it should sell over 5k units at least
https://steamspy.com/tag/Horror

 

Real combat is a nightmare, and yet people enjoy playing combat games. Running a business is usually an exhausting grind, but people enjoy playing entrepreneur games. Working a 9-to-5 job is even more of an exhausting grind, but people like playing games like "Diner Dash" and "Cook, Serve, Delicious". Horror games give people the thrill of vicarious fright, just like watching all of those ghost videos on Youtube. .

 

I've seen a video of your game. The graphics look good and the narrow hallway increases the sense of claustrophobia. So long as you avoid the "endless loop" cliche (as in Silent Hill P.T. Demo and so many others). The video made it look like it might be an endless loop.

 

How many of those are purely horror games rather than shooters or RPGs (etc) with a horror element?

 

Yeah I guess its not that sophisticated I dont know why "puzzle agent" got tagged as horror, but I guess users add the tags. I guess ask the guy on steamspy if can sort tags by predominant tags (because puzzle agent only has 9 horror points but 102 puzzle.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/31270
https://steamspy.com/app/31270

 

Yeah I agree, when you create your own game you always tend to copy a mechanic you admired in another game. Trouble is most ideas have already been done, so your idea is going to be some sort of a copy/inspiration thereof.

Possibly running into the 'cliche' category.

Personally, I think you could copy the endless loop, but have different things going on. My idea was an inventory puzzler.

I really like the horror atmosphere in Pan's labyrinth. The idea of creating doors in walls with chalk is something I'd like to do...

 

I still stick to it that Alien Isolation is the prime example of what a Horror game should be like. The Atmosphere to be is the most important thing - period, ever period. Aside from Atmosphere if you can nail a perfect storyline, it doesn't have to make sense most horror stories I've noticed don't make sense half the time (Friday The Thirtieth) for example, Jason just teleport's apparently lol.

You have to master Ambiance, story (whether it makes sense or not - depends on the game/movie), and think deep down what is it that terrifies (YOU). 100% sure you're not the only person that fears something specific. Use your real fear to guide you on the path, if you sway from what really scares you - it will seem fake and not real - thus not scary.

There's plenty of horror genera's that haven't been done in a game before, you just gotta think on it.
Horror games in my opinion are like the most untapped type of game out side of Ninja's lol.

 

I emailed the guy at steamspy and you apparently download the data

 

One easy alternative would be to just have the hallways dead-end at locked doors until you find a way to open up the secret openings in the walls which you mentioned. It wouldn't be an endless loop, but would still use the same scene that you've already made.

 

Good points, although the endless loop (although now cliche) has some very interesting design factors. The 'L' shape corridor is not random by design. It's that moment when you look around the corner that fills you with fear and anticipation. 'What could be around the corner? I don't know'

Also the endless loop is masterful in it's design. Lulling you into a false sense of familiarity. I've been down this hallway 4 times before nothing bad has happened. Then suddenly, you hit with a jumpscare.

Can you copy it without being a ripoff clone of PT, possibly but you have to have something different. Really liked this EC vid, which is worth a watch if you're serious about making a horror game.

 

That video had a lot of good points, especially about the need for psychological build-up. Suspension of disbelief is also crucial, which means using subtle effects.

 

Yes I agree, think about the first series of resident evil or silent hill and compare them with some of the latest franchises. Resident evil has become more of a shoot em up. Their latest instalment, biohazard seems to be somewhat more inspired by PT... perhaps they're going back to their roots.

The great thing about PT and amnesia (really must get around to playing that) is there is no gun or weapon. Take that away and suddenly your fright factor gets ramped up. But to compensate you must have engaging gameplay.

In actual fact, watching some of the PT videos I didn't think it had any sort of engaging gameplay or puzzles. Sure the way they crafted the atmosphere, sounds etc was masterful. But the puzzles were pretty mudane.

I think there is a gap in the indie horror market with a game with exceptional graphics/atmosphere but with a good puzzle (almost point and click and use) mechanic.

 

That one isn't terribly subtle, is it?

 

I have an idea of a horror game: You spend 2 years making a horror game and you get 1 download after releasing it lol

 

No, that's a bit too viscerally real. Too frightening.

 

Oh hell no.

Spend the rest of my days in a padded cell mumbling "1 download...1 download...1 download".

The bottom line is that horror themed games can do well, but only if the audience is interested.

Getting them interested in a new horror game is quite the challenge too. What are they hungry for? What is the next feature they want to see?

In fact, with the recent release of Resident Evil 7, we are once again shown that fans are finicky. Do not alter or try to change the recipe, formula, combination, etc. or else suffer the wrath of unhappy fans and social media.

 

I would say the graphics look pretty nice, definitely something I've not seen before, perhaps you could make a point it looks like some of the monsters in the latest doom instalment.

That being said it looks like a gore/fright fest (only watched the trailer mind you) ->Something I don't particular like or find engaging in horror games.

Take a look again at the EC video and how it talks about the tension and release cycle. Also it's difficult to make out what kind of story/ gameplay it is going to have, is it just wandering around in hell?

 

and that download is actually from your own, while you were sleepwalking

 

People often make games that are similar to others. If you are going to make a horror game you are going to have to take a different route with it. Similarly with movies, a lot of people do not get that scared. I have hundreds of friends and people that I know, that like watching scary movies but dont find them scary. This is a hard niche to get into, but VR is certainly going to change the whole user experience in horror games

 

Oh boy, totally on point. I've love to wander around my level with a VR headset. If only I have the cash to buy one

 

I found this at 9gag, and its a perfect fit for this topic

http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a1bpLov_700b.jpg

 

Weeping Angels from Dr. Who using Hololens.

 

There is a lot of opportunity in VR. Many of these games, especially aimed at Google Cardboard are free, but it could be a way to get some attention for a larger title. One of my first experiences with VR was a Google Cardboard demo that was horror inspired. It defeintly adds something to the genre.

 

One problem with VR horror games is that many people find them far too scary. Here's a video clip of "IHasCupQuake" becoming so frightened by "Affected" that she starts crying, and her husband has to take over (jump to 5 minutes 10 seconds):

This gets back to one of the issues discussed earlier. Horror games are only fun if the fright is mild enough so that people just get a thrill, rather than being scared out of their wits. That's one of the reasons horror games have far more Youtube views than actual purchases (it's less frightening to watch other people play), and hence one of the reasons it's difficult to make money off these games and many AAA companies stay away from the horror genre. But that's because so many companies (and indie devs) make the mistake of trying to "push the envelope" by making it more frightening / gory / disturbing, when in fact they ought to be going in the opposite direction and focusing on making something with good ambiance or a compelling story, but only enough frightening elements to make it thrilling.

 

I kinda agree and disagree, I like it when people push the envelope of fright. But then again the thought of wandering around my level with a VR headset would scare the crap out of me, and I designed the game.

 

I've gone to Halloween Horror Nights the past few years, and I have to say that the best and most memorable parts are when they actually manage to scare me.

The second best parts are when they manage to scare someone so bad that they freak out. I once had a girl behind me freak out at seeing a clown and slam both palms into my side (from behind me) and take off running. I'm pretty well-built, so it didn't really hurt, and it was absolutely hilarious. She apologized shortly after when she returned to her friends.

So yeah, it's definitely possible to enjoy "horror".